DPC Week Two: Beastcoast Continues to Dominate SA

Each week, Hotspawn will bring you the information you need from every region of the DPC, helping you keep track of the non-stop Dota action.

Neon Make Their Mark in SEA

Written by: Patrick Bonifacio

Neon Esports extended their perfect match record this week, adding another win to their flawless performance from the start of the tournament. They did so pretty convincingly against their Philippine neighbors in TNC Predator, notching the first win in their best-of-three series and closing things out in the third. As expected, Erin Jasper “Yopaj” Ferrer led the way for Neon Esports all throughout, taking it upon himself to put the hurt on TNC at every turn.

The third map in the series was especially notable, given that Neon Esports ended the game with a mind-boggling net worth lead of almost 70,000 gold in less than 50 minutes of play. This was without a single Divine Rapier in play — which makes the feat all the more impressive. Yopaj’s 17-2 performance as Templar Assassin (with 787 gold per minute as the cherry on top) certainly helped in this regard, as did the 507 GPM average of his other four teammates.

With this, they now hold the top spot in the upper division over in Southeast Asia, and are now poised to cement their place in the region as one of the best teams alongside perennial regional champions Fnatic. As for TNC, they currently find themselves in the sixth position with quite a bit of work to do to get to where they want to be. Whether or not this will happen has yet to be seen, however, and it’s difficult for us to say outright that they’re capable given that they’ve been struggling to keep pace for more than a year now.

T1 on the other hand made inroads this week, bouncing back from their 0-2 loss against Fnatic last week by beating 496 Gaming. A back-and-forth third map was the highlight of their series, where T1 proved that they had the chops and mental fortitude to make clutch plays and finish out comebacks when necessary. If they can find their rhythm from here on out, they should be able to hang with some of the more consistent squads.

Elephant Still Vulnerable in China

Written by: Patrick Bonifacio

Xu “fy” Linsen and his band of Chinese Dota household names in Elephant just can’t seem to get going right now. Though the superteam did well this week against relative unknowns LBZS with a 2-0 victory, the reverse happened against first placers Aster in their second series last Friday. In fact, they looked utterly lost and almost clueless versus Aster — as their opponents needed a mere 32 minutes on average to put them away in each game.

Certainly not a good sign for a team with so much talent on paper as well as two first-place finishes at Chinese online tournaments in 2020. We know as well as they do that they are capable of winning important matches against marquee squads in China, but right now they seem to be in a funk that may take them quite a bit of time to get out of. Until then, they can at least take solace in the fact that they aren’t totally winless like LBZS and Team MagMa.

Vici Gaming meanwhile are still sitting pretty comfortably at the top of the table, though so far their matches have only been against the aforementioned winless teams. Certainly not something to be excited about, but it’s a good start for Zeng “Ori” Jiaoyang and the rest of his crew. They will face the third placers in Invictus Gaming for their first outing next week though, so they will eventually get a chance to cut their teeth this season against better competition.

The same goes for PSG.LGD Gaming, whose sole match wins so far has only been against Team MagMa. They’ll be looking to redeem themselves after that extremely close loss to Aster from week one, starting with their match against Elephant on February 7th.

The SADBOYS Move Up in North America

Written by: Patrick Bonifacio

Fans of legendary captain and drafting genius Peter “ppd” Dager had cause to celebrate and/or breathe a sigh of relief in week two. He and the rest of the SADBOYS moved up to fourth place in the standings, thanks to a 2-0 sweep of A-Team on Sunday. Peter and his team were in total control of the entire series, holding A-Team to just 28 kills in total while scoring 74 of their own.

Young gun David “dnm” Cossio showed the crowd just what he was capable of as a mid laner, leading his team in offense with a whopping 31 kills between both games played. Not bad for a 17-year old that had zero professional experience before being picked up by ppd prior to the start of the season. Out of all the players in the region, we think he’ll be the one to pay close attention to from here on out.

As for the kings of North America in Quincy Crew, it was business as usual yet again. They calmly dismantled rivals 4 Zoomers in two games, leaning heavily on meta pick Juggernaut as piloted by Yawar “YawaR” Hassan with great results. The first game saw them post 41 kills while the Zoomers mustered just nine, and by the end of the contest, Quincy Crew had themselves a lead north of 30,000 gold.

Though Evil Geniuses may have the advantage in the standings right now, Quincy Crew are definitely hot on their heels — and aren’t likely to give up their North American crown without a fight. Given that their next opponents are still winless, it is possible for Quincy Crew to sneak into the top spot if EG aren’t at their very best against Undying next week.

EXTREMUM steps up in CIS

Written by: Michael Hassall

In the ESL One CIS Online Upper Division, the hot streak of Natus Vincere and Virtus.pro continued. The two youthful teams have been on a roll and little seemed able to stop them this week.

But the breakout stars of this week have been EXTREMUM with two statement games. First a 2-1 victory over Unique and then a tight loss against table-toppers Na’Vi. In the first series vs Team Unique on January 28th, Extremum took firm control of the first game with a decisive Death Prophet pick. The late-game carry proved too much for Unique to handle, as EXTREMUM pushed to a win. The next game, with their pocket pick banned away, EXTREMUM dropped a game, only to sneak the pick back in the final matchup for a win.

Against Na’Vi, EXTREMUM clearly hoped for more of the same. In the first game, the team successfully grabbed tube DP, as Na’Vi clearly didn’t respect the power of this pick enough. Attempting to counter with their own Naga Siren pick, Na’Vi soon found themselves on the back foot, before losing their first game of the season. However, after this Na’Vi wasn’t content to let EXTREMUM play the game they wanted. Picking away their core heroes in the second game, and banning them straight up in the final, Na’vi grabbed two quick wins. An admirable attempt from EXTREMUM.

At the moment, EXTREMUM is pretty far from Major berth. However, if they can keep performing to this level, it’ll be easy to imagine them rising to the top three of the division.

Alliance Shocks OG in EU

Written by: Michael Hassall

Over in the DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU Upper Division Team Secret and Team Nigma are still on top. The undefeated duo look poised for Major action just two weeks into the season.

However, the landmark game of this week was the clash of OG and Alliance. OG are seemingly in shaky form, while Alliance are in a similar situation. The difference being that we know OG can perform when they’re pushed, while Alliance often seems to crack under pressure.

OG were on a two-game week. They’d given up a game to Tundra Esports on Tuesday 26th in a sloppy win. Alliance would be a tough game for them. Right from game one things weren’t going well for OG. A stomp as the Io and Weaver combo from Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov and Simon “Handsken” Haag demolished their opposition.

For game two, OG dug in their heels. They made Alliance fight for every single gain they made on the map. Continually swinging the advantage back into their favor, OG looked set to farm out a late-game victory over the Dire side. But in a hype ending, Alliance were able to push back out of their high ground and take OG’s unguarded base.

This was a statement victory for Alliance to 2-0 OG, one of the favorites to win the league. Alliance will have a lot of work to do to even make it close to a Major spot this season, but this is the first step in that journey.

Beastcoast Roars in SA

Written by: Michael Hassall

Beastcoast’s dominance in OGA DPC South America Regional League is definitely something to write home about. It just goes to show what this team can do with a stable scene backing it up and brings back good memories of their 2019 run.

It would be incredibly vilifying to see this team back at a Major after so long. But the ease of their schedule so far leaves something to be desired. All three of their 2-0 victories have been against bottom of the table teams. Their biggest challenge came this weak against the Latam Defenders, who are still, at best, a middle of the pack squad.

Next week will be beastcoast’s biggest challenge left as they face number two Thunder Predator. It’s set to be the match-of-the-week for South America, and will likely set the tone of the rest of the season.

Elsewhere, early breakouts SG e-sports brought back down to earth in a humbling defeat by Thunder Predator. SG didn’t even manage to make it an hour-long series, as TP swept them in a pair of sub-30 minute games. Game one was a clinic on support utility plays, while game two was just a case of dominating lanes and pushing to end. Two quick wins for Thunder Predator